Cardi B unleashed a new video for her latest single “Up” late Thursday night (February 4) — and it’s already stirring up some controversy. But this time, it’s not solely because of her sexually-charged lyrics or parents’ concerns over the negative influence she could possibly have on their young daughters.
No. This time, the Grammy Award winner stands accused of jacking the concept of the song from two aspiring New Jersey rappers. On Friday (February 5), Mir Fontane and Mir Pesos took their grievances to Twitter and claimed Cardi knowingly stole the blueprint for “Up” from their August 2020 single “Stuck.”
“@iamcardib we want my money!! @MirFontane,” Mir Pesos wrote alongside a clip of the two songs playing back-to-back.
Upon seeing the allegations, Cardi took her receipts to Twitter and posted a clip of an Instagram Live session with Megan Thee Stallion from August 7, 2020 in which she’s screaming lyrics from the song.
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“Up and it’s stuck, up and it’s stuck, bitch, up and it’s stuck,” she repeats as Megan looks on with a smile.
She wrote in the caption, “August 7th now go check buddy’s date.”
The problem is Mir Fontane and Mir Pesos premiered their “Stuck” video on August 6, 2020, something Fontane quickly pointed out in two separate tweets — one directed at Cardi and another one for his 18.6K Twitter followers.
“We previewed ‘STUCK’ on August 6th at the end of this video and recorded it even earlier than that,” he captioned a retweet of Cardi’s post. “Respectfully.”
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Despite the optics, Cardi insists she would’ve covered her bases and reached out to them had she wanted to sample the song. After all, this isn’t the first time she’s faced these types of allegations. In 2019, Cardi was sued by Louisiana artist DJ JMK for allegedly stealing the “horn riff, arrangement and melody” from a beat he created in 2000 for her song “Twerk” featuring City Girls.
The 28-year-old was sued again a month later for allegedly lifting samples from two Atlanta producers for the Lil Nas X collaboration “Rodeo.” The copyright infringement lawsuit was brought by Don Lee and Glen Keith DeMeritt III, who claimed the song is “substantially similar” to a recording they made titled “gwenXdonlee4-142.”
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Still, Cardi claims she’s never heard of Mir Fontane and Mir Pesos nor did she repurpose their original composition.
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“I’m the type of person that avoids problems & court days,” she wrote. “If i get inspired by a song I wouldn’t mind giving a percentage or couple of thousand but I never Hurd if this man I’m glad while I was recording this song in August I was playing wit the hook on this live.”
But Cardi could potentially face more legal action if Mir Pesos stands by his tweet.
“I’m from Camden!” he wrote. “We don’t let shit slide.”
